When thought neglects its vertical axis—that is, depth—and its horizontal axis—that is, grasping most aspects of the problem under analysis and study—the result of intellectual work becomes naive and superficial, thus failing to comprehend the truth and formulate solutions. The intellectually lazy person neglects depth, and this neglect of depth leads, for example, to the conviction that ISIS, terrorism, the Shabiha, and other factions and their massacres have nothing to do with religion, and that all these criminal scum were created by the West, the East, or the intelligence services of this or that state. The assumption of religion’s innocence regarding ISIS and terrorism in general is based on intellectual laziness and a lack of depth. Here, the historical context of the problem is disregarded. History tells us that religion and religious heritage, over the course of 1440 years, have produced phenomena no less criminal than the barbaric manifestations of ISIS and its ilk. It is worth mentioning here the fact that more than three-quarters of the caliphs, both rightly guided and otherwise, were killed in unprecedentedly brutal ways, and at that time there was no colonialism or intelligence services. Neither Western nor foreign conspiracies; at that time, religion dominated everything.
At that time, the Levant was under European and Persian colonialism, and Syria was at the height of its splendor with its architecture and streets in Palmyra, then Mari and Ebla, the theaters of Bosra, irrigation canals, agriculture, thinkers, and emperors who ruled Rome for periods, There was a colonialism that built and constructed and equalized between Rome and its colonies, until that colonial relationship deserved the name of “partnership,” unlike the colonialism in the Arabian Peninsula, which was internal, Bedouin, tribal, clan-based, and Quraysh-based, and remained in the same form under an Islamic name. The Roman-Persian colonialism of the Levant was external and was far superior to Bedouin colonialism and the colonialism of Quraysh. Look at what Quraysh did to the peoples of the conquered regions throughout many centuries and what were the results of Quraysh’s ownership of the Levant region for ten centuries, followed by four Ottoman centuries, which were a carbon copy of the ten Bedouin centuries.
It is essential to point out that religious extremism is a complex process that necessarily results from politics relying on religion and turning religion into a “legitimate” justification for political action. The spread of this phenomenon is not limited to the Bedouin space in the Arabian Peninsula, but this epidemic can spread in any time and place, like the Jewish Kach movement or Europe in the Middle Ages. All these manifestations were different expressions of one structure. Some learned from negative experiences, like Europe, which acknowledged that the Crusades were a dark period in its history, as were the World Wars. Therefore, it replaced the religious justification for political action with civil laws that distanced religion from the political sphere, and this was acknowledged by religious figures. This development was then called secularism. Arab backwardness necessitates subjecting history, heritage, and religion to a bitter but necessary process of questioning. It is necessary to examine the intellectual and jurisprudential premises that terrorism and backwardness take as justification for their actions and as a basis for their jihad and their mysticism with complete objectivity, impartiality, and rationality.
There are several observations about terrorism and terrorists. The first is that Islamic groups and elements, which have for years been sheltered under the shadow of European secularism and lived under its protection, i.e., the protection of asylum and citizenship laws and others, practice the excommunication of secularism in their own countries. These people insist on benefiting from secularism abroad and reject it at home, They fled from religiousness in the regions they came from and want to apply religiousness in the regions they came to. This represents a phenomenon that is difficult to understand.
The frequency of terrorist operations, the differences in their perpetrators, and some of their objectives reflect a great similarity in their composition, structure, and reference, In general, it can be said that the similarity in methods of execution and the similarity in objectives have spread a great deal of panic in Europe. The refugees and their rulers destroyed their homelands with religion and made Europeans feel that they wanted to destroy Europe, as expressed by the French sociologist Gilles Kepel in his book “Third Generation Terrorists.” The author has many other studies and books.
The jihadist movements drew their intellectual background from several sources, for example, from the writings of Abu Musab al-Suri in the book “The People of the Sunnah in Confrontation with the Nusayris, Crusaders and Jews” and many similar writings, which incite the execution of terrorist attacks against infidels and enemies of Islam. Here, the goal can only be the destruction of Europe.
Here, the terrorist ideological backgrounds erred in assessing the situation in general. Eliminating Byzantium was as easy as the Germanic tribes eliminating Rome, or what Muhammad II did regarding Constantinople, or what Hulagu or Khalid ibn al-Walid did. The duality of cure and disease is no longer effective in this era, and France will not disappear because two people were injured as a result of the use of a bladed weapon, i.e. knives, by a refugee. On the contrary, the presence of these jihadists will be eliminated by tightening the noose around them and by forced deportation. ISIS failed in the Middle East, so is it reasonable for it to succeed in Western Europe!
